Southern Fleet Leasing Corp. v. Airline Builders Service, Inc.

136 So. 2d 458, 1961 La. App. LEXIS 1630
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 27, 1961
DocketNo. 5429
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 136 So. 2d 458 (Southern Fleet Leasing Corp. v. Airline Builders Service, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Southern Fleet Leasing Corp. v. Airline Builders Service, Inc., 136 So. 2d 458, 1961 La. App. LEXIS 1630 (La. Ct. App. 1961).

Opinion

HERGET, Judge.

The Southern Fleet Leasing Corporation on printed forms supplied by it entered into what is denominated a “contract of lease” by which, on December 11, 1955, it delivered to Highland Park Lumber Company, Inc. (the name of which was subsequently changed to Airline Builders Service, Incorporated) a Ford express type automobile for the “basic term of one year from date of delivery of vehicle to lessee and month to month thereafter, until terminated as hereinafter provided.” And, on February 3, 1956,' entered into a similar agreement with said corporation by which it placed in possession of Highland Park Lumber Company, Inc. (now Airline Builders Service, Inc.) a Ford cab and chassis type vehicle. At the end of each of said contracts there was placed in typing identical provisions with the exception of date, reading as follows:

“Guaranty Agreement
“In consideration of Southern Fleet Leasing Corporation entering into the foregoing contract of lease with Highland Park Lumber Co., Inc. the undersigned warrants and guarantees the full and faithful performance by the said Lessee of its obligations under the terms of the said lease, it being [460]*460understood and agreed that without this guaranty, Southern Fleet Leasing Corporation, would he unwilling to enter into the said agreement of lease with the said Lessee.
“Baton Rouge, Louisiana
“December 11, 1955.
“s/ Earl P. Broussard
“s/ Lester J. Jones.
“Witnesses:
“s/ • Billie Baxter
“s/ Leonard Hurst”

The contract dated December 11, 1955 provides jn.part:

“For the purposes of the computations provided for in this lease, the base amount shall be $2166.04 including equipment as indicated above.
“Monthly rental shall be $54.15, payable monthly in advance.
“For; the purposes of the computations provided for in this lease, the parties agree that depreciation shall accrue at the rate of two (2) % of the báse amount for each month for which rental is. paid by Lessee.
“Final Accounting Provisions, (a) Upon expiration or termination of this lease or any' extension thereof, the leased vehicle shall be sold, and Lessor shall furnish to Lessee within twenty (20). days after such sale, a statement of the net''proceeds of the sale. Net Proceeds is defined as the amount received from the sale of the vehicle, less Fifty Dollars ($50.00), and also less any actual out of pocket expenses incurred by Lessor in connection with effecting such sale. After such sale, the amount by which the net proceeds exceeds the base 'amount less accrued depreciation shall be' divided equally between Lessor and Lessee.
“(b) At the expiration of the basic term of- this lease, if it appears that the available value of the leased vehicle, is less than the base amount
less accrued depreciation computed under the provisions of this lease, Lessee shall have the option of extending this lease for an additional period on a month to month basis at the same monthly rental and under the same terms and conditions as the basic term.” (Italics by the Court.)

The instrument dated February 3, 1956 provides that the base amount shall be $3,800 with monthly rentals of $95 payable monthly in 'advance and in all other respects the contracts are similar.

In its petition Plaintiff alleged that seven monthly payments for the months of February, 1959 through August, 1959 were unpaid, which total it computed as to the December 11 contract as being $294.14 and on the contract dated February 3, 1956 $572.05. From these dates it is apparent that the basic terms of the leases had expired and that the leases, if in effect, had been continued by the convention of the parties in exercising the option granted to continue the leases on a month to month basis. The basic figures given of $54.15 and $95 multiplied by seven do not result in the totals which Plaintiff listed as being due for unpaid rental, though he sets forth in the petition that to the monthly rental is to be added “the use tax.” Plaintiff further alleges that under the terms of the lease contracts the lessee was obligated upon the termination of the contracts to pay the base amount of the value of the vehicles less credits to be applied at the rental price per month and that for the contract dated December 11, 1955 this sum amounts to $309.96 and for the contract dated February 3, 1956 this sum amounts to $582. The totality of these figures amounts to the sum of $1,758.15 for which Plaintiff asked for judgment against Airline Builders Service, Inc., Earl P. Broussard and Lester J. Jones, in solido, together with legal interest and 15'% attorney’s fees and, in addition, sued out a writ of sequestration by which the cars were sequestered. By supplemental petition filed on. October 22, 1959, Plaintiff [461]*461alleged that the vehicles had been surrendered voluntarily to Plaintiff by “Defendant” and that said vehicles had been sold by which credits of $200 and $575, respectively, had been made, or a total of $775 and in the supplemental petition it dismissed the sequestration previously issued.

To the petitions defendants Earl P. Broussard and Lester J. Jones filed exceptions of no cause or right of action and, for oral reasons assigned on November 30, 1960, the Trial Judge rendered judgment sustaining the exception of no cause or right of action filed by Earl P. Broussard, which judgment was signed on January 3, 1961. From this judgment Plaintiff appealed.

The basis for Exceptor’s no cause or right of action was:

“a. The original lease sued upon was given for a one year term and it was extended without the consent of the surety, thereby releasing the surety under the provisions of Article 3063 of the Loitisiana Civil Code.
“b. By the act of the plaintiff, the defendant, as surety, has been discharged because, by virtue of the act of the plaintiff, the surety’s subrogation to all of the rights and privileges of the creditor can no longer be operated in favor of the surety. The petition as amended shows on its face that the surety (Plaintiff) has disposed of the leased properties without the consent or knowledge of the defendant.”

LSA-Civil Code, Article 2678 provides:

“All corporeal things are susceptible of being let out, movable as well as immovable, excepting those which can not be used without being destroyed by that very use.”

Though counsel for Plaintiff refers to Articles 2688, 2689 and 2690 of the LSA-Civil Code as authority for the fact that reconduction of a lease takes place of right where the lessee remains in possession of the leased property, we deem these provisions of the Civil Code inapplicable inasmuch as Article 2688 has reference to reconduction of the lease of a predial estate; Article 2689 refers to the reconduction of the lease of a house or a room, and Article 2690 specifically refers to these two articles. We have not been cited to, and research on our part has not disclosed, any article of the Civil Code providing for the reconduction of a lease of a motor vehicle.

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175 So. 2d 326 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1965)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
136 So. 2d 458, 1961 La. App. LEXIS 1630, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-fleet-leasing-corp-v-airline-builders-service-inc-lactapp-1961.